overdue update

Hi again. A whole month has gone by. Apologies for the lack of entries but I have been having real internet access problems.

It has been a busy month. I have been teaching and training at cancer centres in Hyderabad and Trivandrum as well as day to day work in Cochin. Feb 9th-11th I participated in the IAPC international conference in Chennai which had the topic of Pain and Beyond - focusing on psychosocial and spiritual issues. It was a great conference and a chance to catch up with colleagues from the UK. There is a small cohort who come each year to support training. You may know people such as Dr Micheal Minton, Dr Ian Maddoks, Dr David Frampton, Judith Smith, Gilly Burn, Jeremy Johnstone and the team from Severn Hospice ... Some of us try dressing up -we looked good in our Chennai silk saris! Above is a photo of me and the Cochin team. They are delighted that they will be hosting the 2008 conference.


At Trivandrum I was joined by colleagues Dr Rosalie Shaw and Dr Cynthia Goh from APHN / Singapore which was a great chance to talk about wider palliative care issues.

I also had the chance to travel to rural Andrha Pradesh to visit a village ministry project (Indian Village Ministries ivm@sancharnet.in) run by old friends from Aberdeen Suresh and Roja, and meet a friend from my church back home, Peter Ross. Perhaps their project will involve palliative care in the future.

Tomorrow I am off to teach in Jaipur, Rajistan - the pink city. More in the next entry!

It is hot and humid and getting hotter - I would love a few hours in the snow. Hope my fellow Scots are not suffering too much this winter.